Mises Wire

While much of the media remains focused on Trump and trade, the greatest threat to the Chinese economy may be reckoning with a massive financial bubble from within.

Contrary to popular thinking, we do not need  the central bank to stabilize prices in order to promote economic prosperity. The central bank can neither know the "correct" level at which to stabilize prices, nor can it know the right way to do it.

On a recent mountain-climbing trip to Russia, it became very clear how nation and state are two very different ideas. Most everyone I encountered was proud of his nation. Few had much good to stay about their states.

Mexican politicians are claiming Mexican nationals are unsafe in the US. Meanwhile, Mexico's homicide rate - fueled by strict gun-control laws -  has soared to five times that of the US.

In Christine Lagarde and Philip Lane, the EU has two new central bankers who will push the limits of what central banks can do.

Most Americans say crime has gotten worse over the past decade. They're wrong. Moreover, the focus on mass shootings appears misplaced when mass-shooting deaths make up less than one percent of all homicide deaths.

Proposals to ban single-use plastics is yet another triumph of symbolism over substance. Unfortunately, while the benefits are largely illusory, the costs are quite real.

When it comes to Baltimore being a haven of appalling violent crime, Trump's not wrong. Although it has strict gun control laws, Baltimore's homicide rate is comparable to that of El Salvador and Venezuela.

As Murray Rothbard so rightly put it, minimum wage laws translate into “compulsory unemployment.” They don't provide any jobs. They only outlaw them.

Recycling isn't free. It requires the use of time and resources, many of which end up wasted. But politicians keep insisting that recycling is always a win-win, even though we have many examples to the contrary.